You are here

Road closed as work continues on 13th Road Bridge

PLYMOUTH — Work has begun, but 13th Road will be closed until spring as the county puts in a new bridge on the road.
Jeff Million — project engineer from DLZ — told the Marshall County Commissioners that the section of 13th Road near the bridge officially closed to traffic Oct. 12 and will remain closed until the new bridge is complete, a scheduled date of June 30 of next year. Crews officially have until July 13 to finish the project.
Work began in the area with clearing of trees around Aug. 23 but crews were unable to do any major tree removal until after Oct. 1 to avoid violating the habitat of the Indiana bat. Since then, relocation of utilities has been underway with REMC taking down their power lines in the area until after the project’s completion. Century Link has moved fiber optic cables in the area and NIPSCO has yet to begin relocation work.
Crews will soon begin construction of a pier to work from with pile driving and pouring columns. Weather will play a role as concrete work requires keeping poured concrete at a temperature of 50 degrees for curing. The new bridge will be located just to the north of the current structure.
Million said he expected crews to remove the center span of the bridge but keep the two end portions to work from. He said it was likely that demolition of the old bridge would take place once weather becomes too poor to continue concrete work.
Jack Isom Construction of Reynolds, Ind. is the contractor for the project.